Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy
Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy, widely known as Tanmoy, is a Bangladeshi cartoonist, comic book artist, visual storyteller, and editor. For over two decades, his practice has explored comics and sequential storytelling across graphic novels, illustrated books, exhibitions, public art, and community-based projects. His work engages with folklore, cultural memory, socio-political observation, and contemporary storytelling. Tanmoy is the founder of Cartoon People and Cartoon People Comics, platforms dedicated to developing Bangladesh’s contemporary comics and visual storytelling ecosystem. His original comic series Rustom Palowan reimagines Bengali folklore for young readers, while Where Are the Chonchols explores the festivals and cultural traditions of Bangladesh. His work has been exhibited, commissioned, and supported by organisations including Oxo Gallery London, Alchemy Festival, UN Women, the British Council, Goethe-Institut, Artolution, and the World Bank, and presented across Bangladesh, the UK, the USA, Japan, Iran, and South Asia. Tanmoy’s international experience includes the World Press Institute Journalism Fellowship (2015) and the Edward R. Murrow International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) (2014) of the U.S. Department of State. At the heart of his practice is a continuing interest in how comics can document culture, reinterpret folklore, create dialogue, and connect personal stories with larger histories. He approaches sequential art not simply as a format for printed stories, but as a flexible visual language that can move between books, exhibitions, public spaces, communities, and cultures.
Projects
Pother Golpo: Street Stories of Bangladesh
Immersive Installation | Alchemy Festival, Southbank Centre, London
Created in collaboration with British comics artist Karrie Fransman, Bangladeshi comics artist Asifur Rahman, and set designer Andrew Lock (Lyn Atelier LLP), Pother Golpo reimagined everyday street life in Bangladesh as an immersive, walk-through comic installation. Inspired by the visual language of paper theatre and sequential storytelling, the work invited audiences to move through a series of life-sized illustrated environments, transforming comics from a page-based medium into a spatial experience.
Presented at the Alchemy Festival at London’s Southbank Centre and supported by the British Council, the installation explored how comics can function as architecture, exhibition, and cultural encounter, offering international audiences an intimate portrait of contemporary Bangladesh through drawing, narrative, and place.
Cartoons for Equality
Participatory Exhibition & Curatorial Project | Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy
Conceived and curated together with Tamanna Tasmeem and Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy, Cartoons for Equality explored cartoons and comics as artistic tools for addressing gender equality and violence against women and girls. Reimagining the conventional cartoon exhibition, it combined socio-political cartoons, comics, immersive installations, animation, interactive games, live mural painting, and participatory experiences to foster dialogue through visual storytelling.
Presented over eight days at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the exhibition featured more than 400 cartoons and sequential artworks, making it one of Bangladesh’s largest exhibitions of cartooning. The exhibition attracted over 5,000 visitors and culminated in the publication of Cartoons for Equality, a curated volume of selected works.
Supported by: UN Women Bangladesh and the Government of Canada.
Rivers of the World Exhibition
Oxo Gallery, Southbank, London
Served as Lead Artist for Bangladesh in the Thames Festival Trust’s international Rivers of the World programme, collaborating with twelve groups of students from six schools along the Surma River in Bangladesh and six schools along the River Thames in the United Kingdom. Through a series of workshops in Sylhet and London, I guided young people in creating river-centred artworks exploring local environments, cultural identity, and shared experiences. The resulting collaborative works were exhibited at Oxo Gallery, Southbank, London, fostering cross-cultural dialogue and creative exchange between Bangladesh and the United Kingdom through contemporary art.
Very Graphic Exhibition
Bengal Art Lounge, Dhaka
Participated in and helped organise Very Graphic, one of Bangladesh’s earliest exhibitions dedicated to graphic storytelling and comics. Organised by Bengal Art Lounge with support from the British Council, the exhibition brought together established and emerging practitioners from Bangladesh and the United Kingdom to explore comics and graphic novels as a contemporary literary and artistic medium. Contributed to The Future, a graphic narrative developed with Karrie Fransman (UK), Steven Harris (UK), Anika Mariam Ahmed, and Nuhash Humayun as part of an international collaboration exploring new approaches to sequential storytelling.
Graphic Passages, Goethe-Institut South Asia
I am the selected Bangladeshi lead publisher and a workshop instructor for Graphic Passages, a Goethe-Institut South Asia initiative organized by the Goethe-Instituts in New Delhi, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The programme promotes high-quality German comics and graphic novels through translation into South Asian languages, fostering cultural exchange between Germany and South Asia while strengthening graphic storytelling as a literary form. As the Bangladesh lead for the 2026–27 edition, I serve as editor, overseeing the selection, translation, lettering, and publication of German graphic novels in Bengali for the Bangladeshi market.
Girls Do Comics Exhibition
Conceived and Curated Bangladesh’s first exhibition dedicated to women in comics along with creating a space for women comics creators to learn, collaborate, publish, and exhibit their work. Through the Girls Do Comics initiative, 27 emerging Bengali women comics creators participated in an intensive programme of workshops and mentorship, culminating in the publication of the anthology graphic novels পরিচয় (Identity) and Lines and Dreams. Organised by Cartoon People in partnership with Adhunika Foundation and the EMK Center, the festival transformed these publications into an immersive public exhibition combining sequential art with installation and participatory experiences. More than a festival, it established Bangladesh’s first community-led platform for women comics creators, fostering lasting networks while expanding the visibility and recognition of women within the country’s comics landscape.
Birth of an Art, Rise of an Industry
Rich Mix, London
Curator of an exhibition on the history of Bangladeshi political cartoons and the emergence of the country’s contemporary comics industry. The exhibition featured works by leading cartoonists, including Shishir Bhattacharjee, Ahsan Habib, and other pioneering cartoonists, and was presented at Rich Mix, London.
Rohingya Community Mural
Bhasan Char, Bangladesh
Supported by UNHCR and led by Artolution, I facilitated a community arts and trauma-healing project with 50 Rohingya refugees on Bhasan Char Island. Through a series of participatory art workshops, participants processed lived experiences of displacement and trauma while developing visual narratives rooted in their own stories. These workshops culminated in the collaborative creation of a 170-foot community mural, transforming public space into a collective expression of resilience, hope, memory, and belonging, while strengthening connections within the refugee community.
Can You Handle the Truth?
Solo Editorial Cartoon Exhibition | EMK Center, Dhaka | 2014
A solo exhibition organised by the Dhaka Tribune to mark the newspaper’s first anniversary, featuring 25 of my editorial cartoons published on the newspaper’s front page throughout 2014. Through political satire and visual commentary, the exhibition reflected on major national events and debates, including electoral politics, governance, freedom of expression, and questions of national identity.
On a Serious Note
Political Cartoon Exhibition | Nordic Club, Dhaka
An exhibition of political cartoons and editorial illustrations presented with cartoonist Sadatuddin Ahmed Amil, exploring contemporary political and social issues in Bangladesh through satire and visual commentary. The exhibition introduced Bangladeshi political cartooning to an international audience, attracting diplomats, expatriates, and members of the diplomatic community.
Opened by Hanne Fugl Eskjær, Ambassador of Denmark to Bangladesh, the exhibition highlighted the role of political cartoons as a powerful medium for public dialogue, critical reflection, and freedom of expression.
Unmad Cartoon Exhibition
Group Exhibition | Riddhi Gallery, Dhaka | 2023
Featured satirical cartoon works in the Unmad Cartoon Exhibition, organised to mark 46 years of Unmad, Bangladesh’s leading satirical magazine. The group exhibition brought together cartoonists from across the country, presenting cartoons and installations that reflected on major social and political issues of 2023, including the rising cost of living, the national elections, the war in Gaza, and contemporary public life through humour, satire, and visual commentary.
Travelogue: Travel Sketchbook Exhibition
Part of the Longitude Latitude 6 (LL6) Exhibition Series
A solo exhibition featuring travel sketches, observations, and visual diaries created during a journey across fourteen U.S. states as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). The exhibition presented sketchbook pages documenting landscapes, architecture, people, and everyday encounters, exploring live drawing as a form of visual reporting, documentation, and cultural exchange.
Breathe Easy Dhaka - Community Art Projects
Collaborative Public Mural Project | World Bank | Dhaka
A participatory public mural project developed in collaboration with students from Khilgaon Girls’ School, exploring mural-making and visual storytelling as collective artistic practices. Through a series of workshops, participants co-designed and painted a 2,000-square-foot mural, reimagining Dhaka through shared visions of its urban landscape and environment.
Supported by: World Bank
Take Back the Street
Community Art & Graffiti Project | Plan International Bangladesh | Dhaka University | 2020
A participatory public art project exploring collaborative mural-making and visual storytelling as tools for transforming public space into a platform for creative expression and community dialogue. Created in partnership with Plan International Bangladesh for International Women’s Day 2020, the project engaged young people in collectively envisioning safer, more inclusive, and gender-equitable cities through graffiti and public art.
Unsung Heroes: A Tribute to Dhaka's Waste Workers
Public Mural Project | Mirpur, Dhaka | 2023
A collaborative public mural transforming a municipal waste collection facility into a large-scale artwork celebrating the essential contribution of Dhaka’s waste workers. Through site-specific mural-making, the project reimagined an overlooked piece of urban infrastructure as a public artwork that acknowledges the people whose labour sustains the city.
Developed in partnership with Shakti Foundation, MetLife Foundation, and Dhaka North City Corporation, the project explored public art as a means of reshaping everyday spaces and strengthening connections between communities, workers, and the urban environment.
Awards & Fellowships
Public Mural Project | Mirpur, Dhaka | 2023
World Press Institute Journalism Fellowship, USA (2015)
Edward R. Murrow International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), U.S. Department of State (2014)
South Asian Cartoon Competition Award (2008)
16th International Youth Visual Arts Competition, Iran (2009)
Workshops & Talks
Speaker & Panelist, Comics that Travel, Kerala Literature Festival (2026)
TEDx North South University (2017)
TEDx RUET (2025)
TEDx Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University (2026)
Speaker, BRAC University Residential Semester Day (2019)
Speaker, Where Art Meets the Masses, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)
Workshop Facilitator, Visualizing Ideas, Department of Media Studies and Journalism, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)